Well my attic was much worse than I feared. The insulation was so old and dirty I actually confused rock wool with cellulose! But my shop vac from heck is really doing the job. I explored some suggestions made on this topic last January, and put them into practice.
Basically, it is a Jet DC650 2-bag DC with a vortexing separator on a garbage can. The DC and galvanized trash can/vortexing lid (shopfox, $35) are connected with a 10 ft hose, and then I have another 10 ft hose with a 4-2.5″ reducer and then 7-18 ft of shop vac hose and wand extensions depending on where I am in the attic. I replaced the bottom bag with a 42 gal 3 mil contractor plastic bag to collect the blow by from the separator. I also run an AFS1000 to keep the air clean since the DC sits in my office/playroom while the 30 gal trash can sits just inside the attic door on the side wall. While I do lose some suction with the hoses and such, I’ve found that too much suction pulls the stuff all the way through the system. I have just enough that 90+% of the material drops into the trash can for fast removal. It takes about 20 minutes to fill and empty a can, which is about 6 linear ft of joist bay
It really beats pulling it out by hand and putting it into grocery sacks as I did to replace some light fixtures and boxes earlier this summer. The insulation is just pure nasty. At one point I entertained even reusing it, but it is now making a one way trip to the dump. I can get about 2 trash cans into a 42 gal bag, and that weighs about 40 lbs, so we are talking from 6-8 lbs per cubic ft of old stuff vs 1.5 for new cellulose. The best part is I can seal the trash can with the lid as I carry it outside to transfer into the plastic bag. It is so nasty I even wear the HEPA mask outside when emptying the can. All in all I have about 600 sq ft to remove, but my goal for now is to pull up that which sits over our BR which is getting renovated. I’m putting down r21 faced fiberglass for now since it is easily moved to do work in that area. The ceiling joists are full dim 2×6 and average about 5″ of this older insulation, so I’m sure the fiberglass for now is at least even and possibly better than we had last year. Probably in the Spring I’ll suck the rest of it out and then put down a vapor layer and blow in cellulose to 9-10″ including over the fiberglass I’m putting in now. I also need to build up the joist ht to 10″ for a catwalk to do maintenance in there. My rough estimates suggest I’ll remove almost a ton of this old stuff, which will be replaced by 1000 lbs of new insulation that will be twice as thick, and clean!
Oh, and the cool thing is feeling the static build as the stuff gets pulled though the hose. Its like being in a vandegraf. Yes, I do pay attention to the fire potential.
Bob
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I've done it similar, Penn State single bag dust collector with bag removed and pvc pipe to dumpster.I use 6" pvc for the discharge to the dumpster. With 6" pipe you do not have to worry about turns and sags in the pipe. Used to use 4" but got clogs once in awhile.
Since there are a bunch of nails mixed in, I'm trying to keep as much from the impeller as possible. Hopefully those nails are dropping down into the trash can. And the jet isn't set up to connect a pipe to the outflow, but at least the blow-by is going into a trash bag. If I could connect it to go outside to a container, that would be su-weet. Still, this is 10x better than doing it by hand, and it really controls the dust issue at the source!
At least one insulation contractor I know takes the mineral wool he occasionally removes home and roto-tills it into his garden. He claims it helps loosen the dense clay soil in the area, is nontoxic and saves disposal fees. Hmmm.